‘PEOPLE are really supporting our cause to reopen all the closed services at Ealing Hospital,’ Ealing Southall WRP general election candidate Hassan Zulkifal said yesterday.
Local people queued up to sign the petition at the campaign table on Southall Broadway to reopen maternity and paediatrics at the hospital.
Hassan declared: ‘It’s very important during this election to expose the weakness of the Labour leadership, particularly here in Southall, when it comes to keeping our vital services open and fully funded.
‘People resonate with our message with regard to reopening all the services at Ealing Hospital.
‘We encounter a lot of mothers with children who can no longer be treated at Ealing Hospital.
‘This is an outrage and local people blame the local Labour Party leadership for failing to fight for their interests.
‘I pledge to reopen all the closed services at Ealing Hospital.’
Rana Khan, engineer, said: ‘I’m voting for Hassan because I’ve got young children and maternity and paediatrics must be reopened at Ealing Hospital. I want privatisation ended and to quit the EU now.’
Catering worker Razia Omari said: ‘I’ve signed the petition to reopen maternity and paediatrics. I really believe it is important. Without them, mothers and young children are so vulnerable.’
Heathrow Airport worker Abdi Osman said: ‘I’m voting for Hassan and getting all my family members to as well. I fully support him.’
Umar Saleem, Royal Mail worker and CWU member, said: ‘I work at Shepherd’s Bush but I live in Southall. We voted for strike action but the High Court said it was illegal. That’s all wrong. We’re not slaves. The union must stand up for our right to strike.’
Southall mum Khorseda Rahman said: ‘Both my daughters were born at Ealing Hospital and I received very good service. Maternity must be reopened.’
Rain didn’t stop the team campaigning for WRP candidate Frank Sweeney on Wednesday outside Tottenham college, where they met Jay, a student who told News Line, ‘I agree with you that there has to be a revolution and it’s going to start with the people because those currently in power only seek to keep power for themselves.
‘The system doesn’t recognise young people’s voice and I think youth have a lot of solutions because they see things from a different dynamic.
‘There are no facilities for youth which is the reason for boredom which can lead to anti-social behaviour. Also there is resentment about being watched and under surveillance and without trusted guidance.
‘Stop and search powers are unreasonable and unjust which is what creates barriers.’
Asked about zero-hours contracts, he said, ‘They are a waste of time and a majority of people suffer from them, people need decent wages. Rents in London are unfair. You end up paying 60-70% of your wages just for a room.’
‘Vote WRP, break from the European Union, bring down European capitalism, British capitalism; we need a revolution and socialism,’ Jonty Leff, Workers Revolutionary Party candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch said yesterday, addressing the crowd of lecturers, staff and supporters gathered outside Queen Mary’s University in east London on the third day of their strike.
The lecturers and staff in the UCU union are out until December 4 in 60 universities across the length and breadth of the country.
UCU member teaching Politics, Kelvin Smith, said: ‘I support Jonty Leff, it is good to put forward left-wing reasons to leave the EU.
‘I voted out because I could see that the European Union is fundamentally an economic institution. It is run by neo-liberals, and you can see that by the way that they treated Greece.’
